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5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM Examined - Page 2

post #21 of 54
1/18/05 at 12:02am
WTF! By the same logic, if an airplane that flies at 500 knots crashes you will be more dead than if you were on board of a Piper Cub that flies at 90 knots. It either fails or it doesn't. This is just "insurance company" bullshit.

"Life is short, fly fast"
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post #22 of 54
1/18/05 at 9:29am
I don't think you have much experience to back your opinion up.

I am in the laptop business and know what I am talking about. I was just working in a laptop in the afternoon when the computer suddenly showed the blue screen of death and then freezed. I restarted it find the message "no operating system found".

After checking the laptop with a bootable CD I had to confirm it: the hard drive just died. And no, it didn't started to complain: it just suddenly died. No abuse, no vibrations, no shocks.

Laptop hard drives are just unreliable, that's a fact not an opinion. So when you are storing valuable data there I think the best thing is to choose the most reliable device you can find in that category.

I'll tell you what I am going to do: buy a matched set of drives and put them on raid for mirroring. If either crashes there is automatic backup, so that way you can use the faster drives without having to worry about reliability.
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post #23 of 54
1/20/05 at 2:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemex
The numbers have no real meaning, but shows you that the 7200 rpm drive carries three times more energy compared to a 4200 rpm drive. And that energy must go somewhere in an accident, generally your data.

That's why I use a 4200 rpm drive.
Thats the same excuse agoraphobics use to justify staying indoors all the time. I choose to live life on the edge and take the "risk" of using a hard drive that doesnt make my 2ghz laptop feel like a 486 system.
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post #24 of 54
1/20/05 at 2:56pm
Thread Starter 
I would have liked to have gotton 7200 RPM and lived on the edge. My deal from dell limited me to 5400 RPM 80 GB (for the extra $200 make the total $800) I could live with it. The 5400 RPM does seem slower on statup and application loading compared to my 7200 RPM system. Though I wonder if it is all in my head.
Rabid Bunny
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post #25 of 54
1/20/05 at 3:11pm
This is a moot point. If your worried about losing your data, back it up. You don't need a BS in physics or masters in mechanical engineering to know that. Do whatever makes you sleep better at night but if you want to maximize performance while keeping your data as safe as possible, go with the fastest drive you can and keep it backed up. End of story.

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post #26 of 54
1/24/05 at 4:37am
I have to admit it: you are right.

But I still wonder if the people who likes to "live in the edge" has ever lost all their data due to a crash.

Any recommendation on incremental backup software?
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post #27 of 54
1/24/05 at 1:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RabidBunny
This is the Travelstart 5K80 5400 80GB
Machine Dell Inspiron 9200 Pentium M 1.6 GHz 1GB RAM
SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
Drive Index : 31 MB/s

Benchmark Breakdown
Buffered Read : 85 MB/s
Sequential Read : 35 MB/s
Random Read : 26 MB/s
Buffered Write : 38 MB/s
Sequential Write : 32 MB/s
Random Write : 24 MB/s
Average Access Time : 10 ms (estimated)

Performance Test Status
Run ID : RABIDBUNNY on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 8:40:09 PM
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : No
Operating System Disk Cache Used : No
Use Overlapped I/O : Yes
IO Queue Depth : 4 request(s)
Test File Size : 1GB
File Fragments : 1
Block Size : 1MB
File Server Optimised : No

Drive
Drive Type : Hard Disk
Total Size : 72GB
Free Space : 61GB, 85%

This is my work Travelstar 7K60 7200 RPM
Machine Dell Latitude D800 Pentium M 1.7 GHz 1GB RAM
SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
Drive Index : 31 MB/s

Benchmark Breakdown
Buffered Read : 84 MB/s
Sequential Read : 34 MB/s
Random Read : 25 MB/s
Buffered Write : 66 MB/s
Sequential Write : 35 MB/s
Random Write : 26 MB/s
Average Access Time : 11 ms (estimated)


Performance Test Status
Run ID : MILDPERRINXP on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 7:29:04 PM
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : No
Operating System Disk Cache Used : No
Use Overlapped I/O : Yes
IO Queue Depth : 4 request(s)
Test File Size : 1GB
File Fragments : 1
Block Size : 1MB
File Server Optimised : No

Drive
Drive Type : Hard Disk
Total Size : 56GB
Free Space : 36GB, 65%
I have a few questions about this, 1st off, how come the average seek time on the 7k60 is 11ms instead of the 10ms it is supposed to be (which the 5k80 has). Also, I noticed that the 7k60 only had 65% free space as opposed to the 5k80 with 85% free space, what I'm getting at is were both drives fragmented/defragment at the time. And lastly, is there any way you can swap the hd in one comp into the other and retry the test, just to ensure all of the variable are the same. I switched from a travelstar 4k80 to a 7k60 and the difference is enormous, but I'm sure most of that is attributed to the fact that the 4200rpm has a 12ms seek time (which is why I asked the 1st question). Other than that, it was a well done review.
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post #28 of 54
1/24/05 at 1:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by igomil
WTF! By the same logic, if an airplane that flies at 500 knots crashes you will be more dead than if you were on board of a Piper Cub that flies at 90 knots. It either fails or it doesn't. This is just "insurance company" bullshit.

"Life is short, fly fast"
but technically, it would be safer on the plane going 500 knots because the flight time/risk time would be only be 1/5 of the flight/rish time of the slower flight, same as your hd, if you are installing HL2 on a faster drive as opposed to the slower drive, the slower drive takes longer to finish thus has more spin/risk time since it will be more vulnerable while spinning at full speed.
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post #29 of 54
1/24/05 at 4:58pm
Alright alright, i have to chime in with my 2 cents

Why do people keep bringing up the "fact" that you are at a higher risk of loosing data with a higher RPM drive? These drives ARE engineered to run at these rates, just like the 4200 rpm drives are engineered to run at those rates. Just because they are running faster does not mean that they are more likely to be destroyed, loosing data, ect.

In addition, why do people bring up the "fact" that 4200 rpm drive are at a higher risk because they have to spin for a greater amount of time? That’s f**king bullsh*t. That is exactly like you telling a man in a wheel chair will have a great risk of dieing rolling a quarter mile opposed to doing it in a drag racer. What is your reasoning? Because it takes more time?! GET A CLUE

Get back to facts people, post the bench marks, and make your contentions there. Until someone does test to see which drive fails more (4200 or 7200), i think we need to move PAST the danger aspect. </rant>
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post #30 of 54
1/25/05 at 3:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dellbert
By your logic, we should all be using 300 rpm floppies.

The higher RPM will do three things:

1) transfer data more quickly to the heads
2) the higher centrifugal force will keep the platters more free of dust
3) the gyroscopic force will keep the entire system more stable in an environment subject to external forces
you are kidding right?
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post #31 of 54
1/26/05 at 2:17am
hence the smiley *rolling eyes (sarcastic)*
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post #32 of 54
1/26/05 at 3:26am
Thread Starter 
I have change jobs so it is not possible to swap the HDD and redo the benchmark.
Sorry,
Rabid Bunny
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post #33 of 54
2/2/05 at 5:22pm
I would like to point out that a 7200rpm 60Gb hard drive is only faster than a 5400rpm 80Gb hard drive up to the first 60Gb, once you hit the 61'st Gb the larger 5400rpm (or 4200rpm drive for that matter) will always be faster

Why do people argue about this stuff. Like most things computer related, it all depends on what you use your laptop for.
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post #34 of 54
2/3/05 at 6:18am
I am pleased to find someone who really knows about hard drives. The information is stored on the outer tracks first, then go inner so the difference between the two hard drives vanishes with time.

Also, go and see the operating shot rating for various hard drives.
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post #35 of 54
2/9/05 at 2:11pm
mikemex - for incremental backup software I have been using SyncBack for about a year and it is mint. I have not found anything that is as reliable or consitenly good as this software.

They just released SyncBackSE which is $15US. Give the demo a try.

- I am not affiliated with them in any way - just relieved to have quality backup software that does not cost a arm and a leg.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html
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post #36 of 54
2/19/05 at 12:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemex
Quote:
Originally Posted by acruxksa
I would like to point out that a 7200rpm 60Gb hard drive is only faster than a 5400rpm 80Gb hard drive up to the first 60Gb, once you hit the 61'st Gb the larger 5400rpm (or 4200rpm drive for that matter) will always be faster
I am pleased to find someone who really knows about hard drives. The information is stored on the outer tracks first, then go inner so the difference between the two hard drives vanishes with time.
On which track do you store your 61st GB of data on a 60GB drive, Mike?
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post #37 of 54
2/22/05 at 8:21pm
When I get my 7,200 HD I'm just getting a external USB case for my old 80 gig 4,200 and just Ghost my 7,200 on the 4,200 like once a week.
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post #38 of 54
3/10/05 at 8:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dellbert
By your logic, we should all be using 300 rpm floppies.

The higher RPM will do three things:

1) transfer data more quickly to the heads
2) the higher centrifugal force will keep the platters more free of dust
3) the gyroscopic force will keep the entire system more stable in an environment subject to external forces

There's no such thing as centrifugal force
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post #39 of 54
3/10/05 at 9:48pm
^^hey michaelx30... remember me?
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post #40 of 54
3/11/05 at 7:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by acruxksa
I would like to point out that a 7200rpm 60Gb hard drive is only faster than a 5400rpm 80Gb hard drive up to the first 60Gb, once you hit the 61'st Gb the larger 5400rpm (or 4200rpm drive for that matter) will always be faster
It depends on how you define fast. Your statement above is probably right if you are talking about data transfer rate. However, if all other things equal(same cache size, interface, same make, etc), the seek/access times of higher rpm drives is always faster than lower rpm drives regardless of size.
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